1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to providing international services in computer systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to locating services, such as formatting, input and other services for providing international functionality in a computer system by the specification of attributes.
2. Background Information
As computer systems proliferate to beyond regional and national boundaries, demands for international software increase. To make software more international, services are made available which provide functionality within the system and application programs which allow the input and presentation of data which is nationally, and even, culturally-specific. For example, services are provided which allow the input of text in a way which is understood by native speakers. Services may also include those which allowing the formatting of dates, monetary sums, provide sort ordering rules, and specify whether text is displayed using the roman or Cyrillic character set. These services may also include the encoding of the language, and whether text in the language is displayed left-to-right, right-to-left, up-to-down, or any combinations of these. Other services may also be provided, according to implementation.
One of the ways in which international capabilities has been provided is through the use of locales. Locales are provided for a number of nationalities, and/or, cultures. Locales typically specify many of the above-services, including text services, sorting services, formatting services, spell-checkers, and other services which require culturally-specific facilities. Typically, a large number of these services are provided under a locale label, and provide the services as a single monolithic group of services which is difficult to modify or xe2x80x9clocalizexe2x80x9d to a particular region, culture, and/or individual or group of individuals.
One shortcoming in certain systems implementing locales, or other international functionality, is that they frequently suffer from a very small naming space in relation to the number and variety of services which may required by future application programs, including, those requiring international, regional, or other localized services. On the Macintosh brand computer system, the for example, Script Manager, International utilities Package, WorldScript I, WorldScript II, the Language Manager, and the Text Services Manager work together to provide international functionality. The first four organize data based on Script ID. On the Macintosh a Script represents a writing system. Scripts also indirectly define a character encoding. Script specific data is named by assigning ranges of possible resource IDs to each script. Thus to determine which script a certain data type works with, the data type""s resource ID is retrieved and the script ID can be calculated back from the resource ID. This system does not provide an explicit way to categorize data by language, encoding, region, or other attributes which an application program may require. An application or system service that wants to do this must develop some method of its own. This limited name space results in data that is not really writing system specific being forced into a categorization by script code.
Thus, due to the proliferation of computer systems, especially across national and regional boundaries, new methods which explicitly categorize services by language, encoding, region, etc., is required which addresses many of the shortcomings of the prior art. This service should provide an ample naming space for any additional functionality to be provided, and provide means for accessing those services irrespective of a locale, but rather, based upon some other criteria.
An automatic method and apparatus for providing services on a computer system. A set of services is established providing different functionality for the computer system. With each of the set of services an attribute is stored for identifying characteristics of the function of each of the set of services. Then, the first set of services can be retrieved by a first set of attributes which is specified irrespective of any locales which may be defined in the computer system. Thus, characteristics or attributes of most importance to a service may be used to describe it and used for retrieval of such services.
The services may include text services, formatting services, sorting services, etc., and may be used for providing international functionality. The establishing of the first set of services includes building a structure which references each of the first set of services by the attributes. Retrieving may include maintaining a reference to one of the services in the structure and iterating through the structure in order to retrieve a subsequent one of the services. An iterator may be created which is used to iterate though the database of services and provide the services to application or system programs.